The War Of Alus
Alus is a small planet near to Azizos that House Kayce colonized during the reign of Owen Kayce I, who used the planet as a port for his fleet of merchant and protection vessels. The planet was sparsley poulated and tribal when the House Kayce fleet arrived to construct the space ports required to house them, and at the time the locals seemed satisfied to allow the newcomers to take the otherwise barren strip of desert. This changed in 1193 when the local tribes developed, or stole, weapons capable of dealing significant damage to the armor used by the soldiers of House Kayce. This then lead to an uprising by the tribesman who coalesced under the banner of the Hawacha tribe. The Assault of spaceport Zulu 4 The tribesman knew that there would be little chance of them winning any significant victory over House Kayce unless they could deploy as quickly as them. This prompted them to attack the spaceport of Zulu 4. Zulu 4 did not have any frigates and warships in it at all, which is considered by some the reason for the uprisings eventually failure, which allowed the tribesman to enter the spaceport unquestioned as House Kayce had few troops on the planet and consequently only bothered to guard their warships. Until this point this had not been a problem for House Kayce, but the surprise attack from the tribesman caught them off guard which allowed the tribesman to begin to prepare the ships to launch. The unauthorized ship launch immediately alerted the control centre on the planet which then quickly established it was a hostile maneuver and dispatched troops to deal with the tribesman. This detachment was the 51st Bearded Irregulars who functioned as a lightly armoured support regiment in most situations. The 51st approached Zulu 4 in gyrocopters before base jumping on to the roof of Zulu 4. Once assembled the 51st began a room to room clearance of the spaceport. Once the 51st reached the main hanger a huge gunfight entailed. The 51st naturally had the better of the shootout and sustained 12 casualties whilst killing 3 dozen of the tribesmen. However they were unable to prevent the ships from leaving the port and so cleared Zulu 4 of any remaining tribesmen before establishing it as a base and informing the control center of the outcome of the skirmish. The Battle of Dorested Heights Doested Heights is a raised plateau on Alus in one of its few grassland regions on the planet. During the War Of Alus it was used by the tribesmen as a temporary staging ground where they would attack other spaceports. This was a vital target for House Kayce as the tribesmen had the captured ships stationed there, ready to transport troops across the planet. Hered Kayce, taking counsel from his marshall and chancellor, decided the plateau would have to be assaulted. He ordered 2 frigates to enter the planet's atmosphere and to deploy Heron class dropships which would carry the 38th armoured legionaries and the 12th panzer corps down to the surface of the planet. Hered voted to lead the troops himself and he was unopposed by the Centurios. Hered then joined the 38th and informed the men that he would be leading them personally much to the exuberance of the men. The battle commenced the next day with the deployment of the troops to the north side of the plateau which had a fairer incline. Hered ordered the 12th to take the centre of the line and advance up the slope, the 38th would take Boar class ground vehicles and move quickly to the sides of the plateau and climb the steep sides whilst fighting towards a push at the centre supporting the 12th. Hered was deployed with some of the men climbing the steep sides. Once the 38th had reached the top of the plateau they consolidated their position and then commenced firing upon the exposed flank of the tribesman. The tribesmen realising they had been outflanked quickly withdrew to the complex on the plateau and fortified themselves there. Hered ordered the 12th to begin to shell the complex in order to drive the tribesmen back inside the complex further allowing the 38th to enter it unopposed. Once inside the 38th began to clear out the various buildings and structures inside the complex to find the captured ships and retake them or destroy them. The 38th encountered heavy resistance and were ambushed from many buildings by the tribesmen but they were able to locate the ships but were unable to retake them as they were sealed in by the hangar roofs and thus the 38th were forced to destroy the ships. Once placing enough explosives to destroy the ships and the majority of the complex Hered ordered the 38th to retire from the complex. During this withdrawal to a safe distance, one of the 38ths newest privates was shot in the leg by a sniper. Completely removing his leg it rendered the private unable to remove himself from the complex. Without a thought for his own safety Hered drew his hand crafted pistol from House Dolanski ,which he had received as a gift, and ran over to the private and dragged him from the complex. Seeing Their commander risk his life for one of their own, the 38th rallied behind Hered and supported him with covery fire whilst he removed the wounded private. The 38th Hered and the private were only just able to remove themselves from the complex before the charges detonated and destroyed almost the entire plateau. Hered then extracted the remainder of the 38th and 12th and returned to Azizos on the frigates. It later turned out that the private had been the son of the butcher back at Caer Kayce. The butcher hearing of his lords bravery on behalf of his son started a campaign to see Hered's bravery recognised and thus the Emperor himself granted Hered with the Orb of Eledil. Which currently sits in a nieche above the high chair in Caer Kayce's main hall. The Aftermath The tribesmen that remained after the Battle at Dorested were disorganised, demoralized and too spread out to be of a further concern for House Kayce. Herted voting that a continued campaign would be both unethical, and uneconomical voted that the campaign be halted before it became a genocide, and that military garrisons be established at each of the spaceports. This vote was passed with no opposition.